Month: March 2010

Getting Pulled Over When You’re Armed

On thing that those of us who carry need to be concerned about is what to do when an officer pulls us over while we’re armed. The rules about this vary state to state but what I’m writing can only be considered applicable in Minnesota.

The rules in Minnesota are simple. You do not need to inform an officer that you’re armed but if asked you must answer truthfully. When an officer runs your license plate number the returned information will include whether the registered owner of the vehicle has a carry permit or not [Pending official verification. See comments below.]. With this knowledge the officer can chose to ask if you’re armed or not.

There are two schools of thought on how to respond to this situation. The first school says you should inform the officer right away. The second school of thought is that you shouldn’t disclose any information to the officer unless he or she asks first. I’m in the second school of thought and this post is my justification.

First the police officer should know whether I have a permit when they pull me over as my vehicle is registered to me. With this knowledge if they want to know I’m armed then they can ask. Duty of information is their burden not mine. Second a police officer’s job requires them to use anything you say against you. Because of this, outside of casual conversation, my rule of thumb is the only answer questions asked by the police. I never give any information they don’t ask for directly and when they ask a question I answer it as to the point as possible. I’m always polite because they are doing their job after all and I’m glad there are police officers out there. But I’m not going to give them any rope to hang me with either.

My third reasoning is the most important to me though. That’s the fact that criminals have impersonated police officers. These criminals have pulled over innocent people and robbed, raped, or murdered those people. Now if you’re like me you obvious take some time and consideration on the subject of self defense. We’re taught to always be in condition yellow and aware of our surroundings. We’re also taught to be suspicious of anybody we don’t know. So why take somebody’s word that their a police officer without question?

A little known fact is that you can call 911 when you’re being pulled over and ask the operator if there is actually a cop pulling you over. They will tell you whether the person behind you is a cop or not. This is advice they now give in driver education course as a mechanism to verify the person pulling you over at 3 a.m. in the middle of nowhere is actually a cop or not. Additionally a person impersonating a cop is not going to have access to your license and registration information. Unless the impersonator knows you personally or has access to the police database they will not know you are armed. This brings us to the whole subject of not informing the person pulling you over that you’re armed. If the person pulling you over is a real cop they know you have a carry permit and therefore can ask if you’re armed. On the other hand if the person who is pulling you over isn’t a cop they have no way of knowing you have a carry permit and therefore will most likely not ask you if you’re armed. If they ask if you have a carry permit be suspicious because a real officer will have access to such information.

If the person is actually a criminal impersonating a cop do you want to volunteer the information that you’re armed? I sure wouldn’t. I have a gun as a mechanism to use in self-defense. I also carry concealed because I don’t want people knowing I’m armed, the element of surprise is a good thing in my book. Therefore I’m not going to divulge the face I’m armed to somebody who could be a potential criminal.

Stay alert. Don’t trust people you don’t know, especially when that person appears to be a person of authority. Criminals do use disguises of authority to gain peoples’ trust and obedience. You shouldn’t drop out of condition yellow just because the person in front of you looks like an authority figure.

I Love Hypothetical Situations

The Firing Pin Journal brings us a new hypothetical situations which requires you to chose one rifle caliber to take with you:

You are heading off to a rural area where you will spend three weeks having to survive on your own. All of your food must be caught and to add excitement to the scenario, a group of 5 zombies are out there who are very bad zombies, part of a zombie drug ring. You are on their turf and must survive. If you can avoid contact that’s good but if they find you they will be upset with you.

Oh and you don’t get any spare parts and 200 rounds of ammunition (For five days that should be more than sufficient).

Zombies only go down with head shots so having a massive caliber in that regard isn’t necessary. On the other hand if you want to hunt something like deer you’ll want something of decent size. I’d opt for my M1A SOCOM 16. The 7.62x51mm is certainly large enough to drop a deer and can really reach out and touch somebody. The gun is reliable and not known for breaking anything. Head shots on zombies will be no problem at all. The only issue would be weight but it’s not that dreadfully heavy in all honesty. Also I know the rifle like the back of my hand which means in a fight with the drug gang zombies I’d have less problems involved with being unfamiliar with my rifle.

Damned drug gang zombies, they are the worst kind!

I Liked It Better When I Didn’t Have Anything to Report On

Usually the gun rights front here in Minnesota is relatively quiet. That is until Mr. Paymar gets a bug up his butt and decides to introduce anti-gun legislation. This is more of a heads up than anything since I just got NRA-ILA alert today (Sorry I’ve been busy). The two previously mentioned anti-gun laws are being heard today by the Crime Victims/Criminal Records Sub-Committee at noon. My last letter writing efforts went out to everybody on all three of the involved committees but phone calls in the next hour certainly won’t hurt. The bills are:

House File 2960 would force private sales at gun shows to go through background checks. Gun prohibitionists, like Representative Paymar, falsely claim that a large number of criminals get their guns from gun shows; however, the most recent federal study on gun shows put the figure at only 0.7 percent. This effort is a stepping stone for gun control advocates seeking to ban all private sales, even among family and friends.

House File 1396 includes a provision that would allow a court that issues a domestic abuse protective order to prohibit the respondent from having any contact with a PET OR COMPANION ANIMAL OWNED, POSSESSED, OR KEPT by a party protected in the order. This new provision could have serious consequences for Minnesotans who exercise their right to keep and bear arms.

The first one is obviously the one I’m most worried about. Minnesota is a pretty leftist state and these kinds of bill do have a chance of getting through. The last thing I want is to be legally required to beg the government for permission to sell my private property. Let’s hope these two get shut down in committee.

Glock 17 Generation 4 After Range Report

I promised I’d do an after range report on the Glock 17 Generation 4 so here it is.

The gun shoots beautifully. I never fired a previous generation Glock 17 so I can’t compare mine to any other one. But the double recoil system seems to do its job well. Aimed rapid fire is very doable and the recoil is almost nothing. At 21 feet I was able to dump the 17 round magazine in very short order and keep all the rounds in the middle of the human silhouette target. Accuracy out to 25 yards (The range’s maximum) was great. Placing rounds into the head of the target was not issue at all (Not that it has been with any other gun but the groups at that range were pretty decent for me).

The gun is picky on the shooter though. I let the person I was shooting with fire a magazine out of the gun. She never made it through the magazine though because in her hands the gun kept failing to return to battery. Now she’s a small person at five feet tall but she handles an EAA Witness in .45 without a problem and has had no problem with my 1911, Glock 30SF, or Glock 21SF. But that Glock 17 would not properly operated so I’m baffled to say the least. I finished off the magazine with no issue and put about 200 rounds down range without a single failure. I’m guessing the gun requires somebody with at least a little mass to keep it stiff enough to cycle well. That could be due to the new telescopic recoil system but I’m unsure. Either way it’s something to note.

The back strap system certainly raised my ire. I’m not really a fan of the setup after trying to attach the “L” back strap at the range. Getting the trigger pin out isn’t an issue nor is clipping the back strap into place. But getting the longer pin through properly proved to be difficult. The back strap pieces don’t align absolutely perfect on my gun so you really have to push them in to get the pin through. The included tool is a joke and unusable for the task it was designed for. It’s so flimsy that when you try to push the trigger pin into the gun is bends before the pin begins to move. Do yourself a favor and get a real 3/32″ punch (Which is all the Glock armor tool is). The easiest way to get the pin in that I’ve found is to use a dramatically over sized punch to push the pin through both holes and use the 3/32″ punch to push it properly into the grip holes.

Either way it’s not a fast tool less swap like the M&P palm swell. I think Smith and Wesson had a better design as far as inserting or removing their palm swells. What I do like better about the Glock back strap is it extends the length of the entire grip not just the palm area. For me that makes it more comfortable and consistent feeling. It Also adds width where I really need it, at the top of the grip. That way my trigger finger doesn’t feel like it’s going to wrap around the trigger twice. But the execution of attaching and removing the back straps is dreadful at best. Likewise the back straps themselves feel flimsy. I’m sure they’ll stand up well but they sure feel like they could snap if you look at them wrong.

Overall I really like the gun through. It shoots well, unless of course if you’re too small apparently. Having 17 rounds in the magazine is also great (I’m coming from a .45 background where 10 to 13 rounds is impressive). Just don’t plan on swapping back straps often.

Terminator’s .45 Laser Sight

Here is a rather interesting article I stumbled upon. I’m sure everybody here has seen Terminator, if not go watch it. In the movie he uses a .45 with a laser sight attached to it. This day and age that doesn’t sound impressive but back in the ’80’s:

This was the early days of lasers for commercial use. “At that time we were dealing with helium neon laser. All the newer lasers are solid state, about the size of an aspirin or smaller.” HeNe lasers are much larger than that, he explained, and required about 10,000 volts to get started. Once ignited, they take 1,000 volts to keep them running. That makes the power supply a tricky thing to design.

Now consider the movie didn’t have a terribly high budget and this article makes for an interesting read.

One Handgun, One Shotgun, and One Rifle

The Firing Pin Journal has a post where you select one pistol, one rifle, and one shotgun for self defense. So I figured what the Hell I might as well play along.

Pistol
My Glock 30SF. I carry it on my person every day, it’s proven itself to be reliable, and it shoots a .45 which I’m just a fan of. Also parts for Glocks are easy to find and the gun is easy to work on. Heck you can detail strip it in the field without any issue.

Shotgun
My Remington 870 Marine Magnum. It’s a pump action shotgun that is one of the most popular in the world (The 870 line itself not the Marine Magnum line). It has an 18″ barrel making it maneuverable and a large magazine capacity meaning you don’t have to jam shells into the tube as often. To top it off it’s idiot proof. Oh and like the Glock parts are easy to come by which I just kind of like.

Rifle
This is a harder one. It’s a toss up between my beloved M1A SOCOM 16 and the AK-47. In the end I’ll chose the AK-47 because this is for self defense and honestly 7.62x39mm is plenty enough to drop a person. To top that off the AK-47 is world renowned for reliability, parts and ammo are easy to find, and frankly it’s idiot proof.

Glock 17 Generation 4

I’ve been hemming and hawing about what 9mm pistol to get. I narrowed it down between the fourth generation Glock 17 or a Beretta 92FS. My justification to myself is I wanted a smaller caliber pistol to bring when I take new people shooting. Right now when I take a new person shooting they get to start on a .22 and jump to a .45 (Unless they’re willing to try a revolver but I notice many people don’t like that idea). I recently purchased a PA-63 which is in 9×18 but that gun is rather vicious and likes to bite the web of your shooting hand and the index finger of the hand wrapped around the shooting hand. I like it but I don’t think new people would.

Of course that’s just B.S. justification for the fact I want to own a 9mm. Yesterday I went into Ammo Craft in Hopkins, MN (Yes they get free advertisement because I really like the guy who runs it and their prices on guns are always good) and they had a fourth generation Glock 17 in stock. I thought I’d play around with it a bit and decided to purchase it. I’m taking it to the range for testing tonight. Until I get a range report I’m going to write some of my thoughts on this gun.

Looking at the gun not much has changed besides the grip is smaller and the texture is different. I like the new texture as it’s more aggressive than the generation three frames but less aggressive than the RTF2 frames. It’s a happy medium. Most people know that the gun now has the ability to use swappable back straps, two of which are included with the gun. One thing I like about Glock’s design is you don’t need a back strap inserted as the grip itself is textured on the back. This means the gun itself is still a self contained unit. Inserting a back strop is as simple as removing the trigger pin, clipping the back strap in, and inserting the included longer pin.

Two things to say about this. First I’m not that big of a fan of needing two pins, one for use when no back strap is attached and one for when a back strap is attached. It’s a small part and will be easy to lose. The second statement is the tool they give you to push the pin out is a joke. This little push punch is flimsy crap that bends when you look at it wrong. Why they didn’t just spend the extra three cents and include a Glock armorer tool I don’t know. Luckily any 3/32″ punch will work to remove the pin so you can get a real tool if you want one.

Overall the back straps make a noticeable difference. I have long fingers and find the grip on the Glock 30SF and 21SF to be comfortable. When the largest back strap is inserted the 17 feels very nice in my hand. As I mentioned the gun comes with two back straps. Without any back strap attached the gun is similar to an SF model of the large frame Glocks meaning it’s smaller than previous 17s. The back strap marked “M” adds 2mm of thickness to the back of the grip while the back strap marked “L” adds 4mm.

Another feature is the magazine release is now only larger but can be swapped around for left handed use. I haven’t tried swapping it around yet so I don’t know how easy it is but I can’t imagine it being very difficult. I’m not too concerned about the ambidextrous nature of the pistol as I simply use my trigger finger to drop the magazine when I’m firing it left handed. What I do like is the magazine release is larger and I don’t have to adjust my hand to hit the release with my thumb. The release is seated just slightly higher than the frame so I don’t believe accidental magazine releases while the gun is holstered will be an issue.

The other new feature in the new generation Glocks is the telescopic recoil spring. I don’t have much to say about it since I haven’t shot the gun yet but it’s supposed to reduce the felt recoil. This really isn’t anything new for Glock as my 30SF also has a telescopic recoil spring but certainly doesn’t look as heavy build is the on in the generation four pistols. One thing is for certain it’s slightly harder to rack the slide (Very slightly mind you). Getting the slide moving takes more force but once it’s “broken” free it’s easy to move the rest of the way back.

All the internal parts minus the recoil spring and barrel look to be the same as previous generation Glock pistols. This means finding parts for the gun shouldn’t be difficult. Of course the slide on the fourth generation pistols won’t fit on previous generation guns since the frame needs to be cut out for the large recoil spring.

Overall I like to look and design. There aren’t many changes to this gun but there really didn’t need to be either. I’ll post about the range results when I have them.

REAL ID Won’t Go Away

Even though no citizen wants it out politicians are ensuring some form of REAL ID gets passed into law. This time it’s being introduced to stop the “immigration” problem. From the article:

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

That’s right a card you’d be required to get in order to work. Doesn’t that just sound like big brother plus some? Of course Chuck Schumer’s name would appear on this project. What a bastard. Americans really want to beg the government for permission to work, make money, and live in this country. Also you know it’s a bad idea when:

Most European countries require citizens and foreigners to carry ID cards.

When most European countries do something you know it’s not good for individual liberty of human rights. Let’s not lie to ourselves our government is going to do everything it can to develop some federal method of tracking as many citizens as they can. But hey at least they aren’t using the terrorist card on this one.

Japan Sounds Like an Anti-Gunner’s Wet Dream

No not for the usual reasons such as Japan’s overly strict gun laws. But when I read this article on a Cold War era treaty Japan had that allowed nuclear armed United State’s naval units to port the following exert struck me:

The secret pact is controversial because after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan adopted the three “non-nuclear principles” – not making or possessing nuclear weapons, nor allowing them on to its soil.

Now I’m the first person to say nuclear weapon proliferation is a bad idea (Although we in the United States have no right to tell other countries they can’t build or own them). The things are vicious but if everybody else has them you really need to as well less you get nuked and not have a method of retaliation (Mutually assured destruction is the only reason I believe the Cold War stayed cold).

But Japan’s mentality mirrors that of some anti-gun and anti-self defense advocates. The idea is to blame the devices not those who are wielding it. For instance some people who are mugged at gun point becomes advocates for banning firearms since they incorrectly believe that will disarm the criminals and make streets safer. Japan seemed to develop the same attitude towards nuclear weapons. Since they got nuked they decided that ensuring there are no nukes in their country will prevent them from getting nuked again.

I just found that interesting since I’d imagine the only country to be nuked in a time of war would like a means of ensuring it doesn’t happen again (Once again mutually assured destruction). But of course this piece was also interesting:

The secret deal was sealed in the 1960s between US and Japanese diplomats, who agreed that the transit of nuclear arms through ports did not constitute the introduction of weapons into Japan, and so did not require prior consultation on the US side.

Much like anti-gunners are willing to call the police to be a proxy of violence Japan seemed just fine with our nuclear capable ships being in their waters. If Japan was so dead set against nukes you would think they would be angry about anybody having them. But it’s easier to take the moral high road when you can decry violence while still having somebody defend you if somebody brings violence upon you.

Funny Search Terms

One nice thing about WordPress is it will list different search terms people used to navigate to your site. I must admit I do find some humorous items in that list such as this one:

.308 round piercing skull range

I’m very curious to know the story behind that search term.